CI frontend, ExpressionEngine backend?

[eluser]ywftdg[/eluser]
I was curious, can I develop my frontend using CI and have my client manage the site using expression engine as the admin? This of course referring to the current version of expression engine. I know there is a new version coming soon, but even the current version works just great for my current project. If this is possible, how can I run expression engine with CI as my main framework?

[eluser]loathsome[/eluser]
If you can, wait for EE 2.0 -- it's built upon CI

[eluser]Colin Williams[/eluser]

If this is possible, how can I run expression engine with CI as my main framework?

Easy.. just ask how on the forum.

Okay, seriously, this could be done for Drupal, EE, WordPress, Joomla, or really any application that stores data in a database that you can interface with PHP. All you need to do is read data from the same tables that EE writes do, and you can do with the data as you please. You would have to start by learning EE's database design in and out then you could write models that retrieve data in the proper manner.

[eluser]Michael Wales[/eluser]
Yes - it's possible, but why? EE is amazingly powerful and I'm willing to bet whatever idea you have in mind could easily be accomplished (in much less time) by simply using EE and leaving CI out of the picture (for now).

[eluser]ywftdg[/eluser]
So maybe my best bet, is to ask the client to hold for a month or so (as they are in no rush), and then use EE 2, and use my recent knowledge of CI to customize it to my needs. There are some certain values I want on certain posts, that effect way to will be sorted and displayed on the site. I really want to keep the front end using CI, as I am liking this a lot and want to move towards developing all future projects with this framework.

My main issue is my client will have portfolio/blog sections that will require working with image uploads and applying them to the specific post. I really don't want to build a custom app for all this, as it has been doe before much better than I ever code develop. A package like EE seems to handle this in a very simple and manageable method.

[eluser]Michael Wales[/eluser]

I really don’t want to build a custom app for all this, as it has been doe before much better than I ever code develop.

There are some certain values I want on certain posts, that effect way to will be sorted and displayed on the site.

This sounds like ExpressionEngine all day long - even now, before EE2.

I had never touched EE until about 5 days ago - I didn't like the "feel" of it. I was a Wordpress user through-and-through and if I couldn't make WP do it, I custom developed it in CI.

I finally broke down, got the personal license for EE, and started working on a blog/portfolio site for michaelwales.com. It was fully functional after 4 hours.

I have a list of services that I provide - that is easily updated via the EE backend and can be displayed across any page. I have all of my clients (my portfolio) with image uploading, automatic thumbnail generation (thumbnails are used on homepage), I have a blog, a tutorials section, a contact page and I am currently working on my "client login" section that will basically be a merger of Basecamp and Freshbooks - I haven't touched a bit of PHP yet.

EE is amazing, I highly recommend giving it a shot. Download it - delete out the default template and start from scratch, you will be amazed at how quickly you pick it up and how easy it is to accomplish exactly what you are needing.

[eluser]ywftdg[/eluser]
Very interesting, and I will for sure investigate this, this afternoon. Thanks for the pointers. I am assuming, with EE, you can say add extra areas to the post generation process, such as in wordpress you can have the extra values you can enter below, but in wordpress these are very archaic for say a client.

I guess what I am asking, is there a way to say, I want to be able to enter a HEX value for each post, could I add a form entry area (or even color picker) into the admin post area, for this specific value?

Never mind, dug deeper found the custom fields options. Very sick, thanks Michael for the direction, cheers!